Reception

The work was given its premiere in Meiningen on October 25, 1885 with Brahms himself conducting. The piece had earlier been given to a small private audience in a version for two pianos, played by Brahms and Ignaz Brüll. Brahms’ friend and biographer Max Kalbeck, reported that the critic Eduard Hanslick, acting as one of the page-turners, exclaimed on hearing the first movement at this performance: “For this whole movement I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people.”[2] Hanslick later spoke more approvingly of it, however.[citation needed]

Progressive rock group Yes‘ keyboardist Rick Wakeman used part of the symphony on the instrumental “Cans and Brahms” from the 1971 album Fragile